First, I want to say that I respect Marian Valev for his actor's work (he is a great talent, one of the best Bulgarian actors from the recent decades).
Second, I won't be too harsh in my review, because we can call "Chalga" an independent movie as it was not funded by the Bulgarian government.
Third, the purpose of this review is not to hate, but to save the time of other candidate viewers.
Forth, this review reflects my personal point of view, so it is subjective.
Fifth, Marian Valev is both director and writer of the movie, so I will call him simply "the author".
(Sixth, for non-Bulgarians: What is "chalga"? Chalga is a Balkan musical style, which is heavily inspired by the oriental, Arabian music. Chalga singers are usually provocative, kitsch, rely on scantily clad clothing and plastic surgery. They usually sing about immoral themes, such as easy money, easy life, sex, cheating and so on).
Now, to the point!
What is not so good in this movie:
1. Subject matter / plot - the idea of exploring the "chalga" society and their way of thinking is great, but here the author took the most cliché way - our main protagonist is a girl who wants to quickly earn money for a breast augmentation and become a famous "chalga" singer. As a viewer I would want to see some social exploration - what makes her think like that, what are the people around her like, her childhood, her environment, her friends. Part of this was quickly covered in the beginning of the movie, but without any depth. Another problem is that Valev addresses some important themes such as should mentally ill people be allowed to raise children, where it seems that he does not have a definite answer because throughout his characters' action or thoughts he changes his position 360 degrees several times (e.g., Rose kidnaps her child; later after betraying her to the police Barbara thinks that it was not good idea for a child to be raised by mentally ill, and in the final sequence (if we could assume that it is not some surreal imagination) Rose is again with her child).
2. Genre - While watching the movie the following question was constantly with me: Is this a serious movie, or a parody, or a satire? Let's compare "Chalga" with another recent Bulgarian movie "Yellow Oleander". "Yellow Oleander" has its own flaws, but there from the very beginning it was clear that this is an absurd black comedy. On the contrary, "Chalga" has some realistic characters (there're even people playing themselves) and some quite absurd and surreal, such as Nikolay Nikolaev's "Ochilarko". If the story was told by Rose (Tsvetelina Stoyanova), instead of Barbara (Eleonora Ivanova), then, due to her illness, a character as "Ochilarko" could be justified, but unfortunately that is not the case.
3. Voice-overs - in some cases voice-overs were used to cover things we just saw; in other cases, they cite an entire Wikipedia page (regarding the bipolar disorder) and in some cases (near the end) they try to convey the author's thoughts about the subject matter ("we live in a world where people are evaluated by their Instagram followers" - I meant this is true, but it is so cliché, and to say it in a voice-over is a bit too much... Valev - if you are reading this - in your next movie please try to imply your ideas through the movie scenes and avoid the voice-overs - please don't underestimate the IQ of your auditory!). I think in general when a filmmaker frequently relies on conveying important messages to their auditory through voice-overs, then something is wrong with their movie (proof of that is one of the worst movies in all the time - Neil Breen's Double Down).
4. Marian Valev cameo - this is like the voice-overs. In the last half of the movie Valev appears on the screen in a preacher fashion, to ask the lead heroine some "important", but completely addendum questions ("Are you ready to face all the suffering in the world to reach your goals?") - we (the viewers) didn't even need to hear what she would say, because we already watched the movie so far, didn't we? But the following Q&A was hilarious:
Valev: Tell me about yourself?
Barbara: I'm Barbara, they call me Barbie... Actually, there is not so much to be said."
Well, yes - Barbie, you are right, the screenwriter developed one dimensional character out of you without any back story, so you cannot say much.
5. Visual style - In general the movie is visually OK. But my initial observation was that it doesn't have a "cinematic feel" but looked a bit more like a TV play or a soap opera (I watched the movie without prior knowledge that it was shot entirely using smartphones). Maybe the author thought that smartphone video will be closer to the "chalga" mindset i.e., what we see in the "Instagram" of the influencers and celebrities, but if that was the case then I would want Valev to go a bit more to the extremes and clearly "seal" this message (e.g. Some "Instagram" filters applied, more selfie angles, etc.), because now for me it looks more like a defect, rather than effect. Also, I understand that the movie was shot with smartphones, but the slow-motion scenes (running sequence near the end and some others) were cartoonish and addendum.
6. Character development - in the very beginning we understood that the lead heroine - Barbara is on a route for grabbing quick money for a breast augmentation which will help her to chaise a chalga singer carrier. Barbara is ready to follow her dream at any cost, even by selling her body. She is suffering for the sake of her dream, but on screen (it is often implied) we barely actually see anything bad happening to Barbara. Obviously, Valev didn't want to go into the more "graphic" / "violence" route. Neither he wanted to see his heroine undergo the desired surgery. On top of that Rose (the supporting character) was always supportive and quickly forgiving Barbara's betrayals and mistakes. So, with such "milky" screenplay how we (the auditory) can be convinced that Barbara really learned her lesson and has changed? How will our children learn the lesson that the chalga mindset is bad for our society?
7. Length & endings - At the 90-minute mark we listen to a full-length song, beautifully sung by the lead heroine. The intention is obvious - to show that she can sing, but I don't think this justifies the performance of an entire song and the cliché flashbacks of sequences from previous scenes. From that point onwards there are several scenes where I was tricked that each one is the final one (the ending), but the movie insisted to continue. The movie length is around 2 hours, but I think it could easily fit in 90 minutes without losing anything from the story.
8. Ads - The inclusion of ads in the movie is more than understandable since this was the way to fund the film. My only complaint is that some of the ads were incorporated a bit uninspired. Also, the "Rachkov is Stoichkov" joke was not bad and I'm sure that 99% of the Bulgarians will get it immediately, since the ad was super popular and the reference was obvious, but Valev decided to play it safe and explained the joke via his characters. His characters are daft, but we (the auditory) are not, or are we (Valev)?
What is good in this movie:
1. Some celebrities (Dimitar Rachkov, Viktor "The Bachelor" Stoyanov, Lora Karadjova) - play (a bit exaggerated version of) themselves, so they are satire for themselves and their "chalga" (money grab) mindset. Although it is a bit cringe to watch some of the scenes with them - I think convincing them to play those roles is a great achievement by Valev!
2. The two lead actresses did a great job. Big applause to Tsvetelina Stoyanova to have the guts to play Rose, since in the movie she has an "incident" which seems to be a nod to what had happened to her in the real life.
Score: I think in general Valev went to the cliché route on many occasions, but as this is an independent movie I'm a bit more generous and thus giving "Chalga" an overall score of 4/10.
Bonus food for thought: There are so many crazy real-life examples that could make interesting story plot and reveal the chalga mindset. Let's imagine that instead of the current movie Valev has decided to make a movie inspired by the life of the singer Azis (short bio summary: his mother is in prison while pregnant, he is a poor gypsy guy, he has a great voice, but he has to pretend to be gay and provocative in order to get noticed, at the peak of his career he had a billboard ad with his ass exposed in front of the Bulgarian parliament, later on he tries to convince everyone that he is straight and he wants to have a child, now after his transformation his popularity is declining...).
Second, I won't be too harsh in my review, because we can call "Chalga" an independent movie as it was not funded by the Bulgarian government.
Third, the purpose of this review is not to hate, but to save the time of other candidate viewers.
Forth, this review reflects my personal point of view, so it is subjective.
Fifth, Marian Valev is both director and writer of the movie, so I will call him simply "the author".
(Sixth, for non-Bulgarians: What is "chalga"? Chalga is a Balkan musical style, which is heavily inspired by the oriental, Arabian music. Chalga singers are usually provocative, kitsch, rely on scantily clad clothing and plastic surgery. They usually sing about immoral themes, such as easy money, easy life, sex, cheating and so on).
Now, to the point!
What is not so good in this movie:
1. Subject matter / plot - the idea of exploring the "chalga" society and their way of thinking is great, but here the author took the most cliché way - our main protagonist is a girl who wants to quickly earn money for a breast augmentation and become a famous "chalga" singer. As a viewer I would want to see some social exploration - what makes her think like that, what are the people around her like, her childhood, her environment, her friends. Part of this was quickly covered in the beginning of the movie, but without any depth. Another problem is that Valev addresses some important themes such as should mentally ill people be allowed to raise children, where it seems that he does not have a definite answer because throughout his characters' action or thoughts he changes his position 360 degrees several times (e.g., Rose kidnaps her child; later after betraying her to the police Barbara thinks that it was not good idea for a child to be raised by mentally ill, and in the final sequence (if we could assume that it is not some surreal imagination) Rose is again with her child).
2. Genre - While watching the movie the following question was constantly with me: Is this a serious movie, or a parody, or a satire? Let's compare "Chalga" with another recent Bulgarian movie "Yellow Oleander". "Yellow Oleander" has its own flaws, but there from the very beginning it was clear that this is an absurd black comedy. On the contrary, "Chalga" has some realistic characters (there're even people playing themselves) and some quite absurd and surreal, such as Nikolay Nikolaev's "Ochilarko". If the story was told by Rose (Tsvetelina Stoyanova), instead of Barbara (Eleonora Ivanova), then, due to her illness, a character as "Ochilarko" could be justified, but unfortunately that is not the case.
3. Voice-overs - in some cases voice-overs were used to cover things we just saw; in other cases, they cite an entire Wikipedia page (regarding the bipolar disorder) and in some cases (near the end) they try to convey the author's thoughts about the subject matter ("we live in a world where people are evaluated by their Instagram followers" - I meant this is true, but it is so cliché, and to say it in a voice-over is a bit too much... Valev - if you are reading this - in your next movie please try to imply your ideas through the movie scenes and avoid the voice-overs - please don't underestimate the IQ of your auditory!). I think in general when a filmmaker frequently relies on conveying important messages to their auditory through voice-overs, then something is wrong with their movie (proof of that is one of the worst movies in all the time - Neil Breen's Double Down).
4. Marian Valev cameo - this is like the voice-overs. In the last half of the movie Valev appears on the screen in a preacher fashion, to ask the lead heroine some "important", but completely addendum questions ("Are you ready to face all the suffering in the world to reach your goals?") - we (the viewers) didn't even need to hear what she would say, because we already watched the movie so far, didn't we? But the following Q&A was hilarious:
Valev: Tell me about yourself?
Barbara: I'm Barbara, they call me Barbie... Actually, there is not so much to be said."
Well, yes - Barbie, you are right, the screenwriter developed one dimensional character out of you without any back story, so you cannot say much.
5. Visual style - In general the movie is visually OK. But my initial observation was that it doesn't have a "cinematic feel" but looked a bit more like a TV play or a soap opera (I watched the movie without prior knowledge that it was shot entirely using smartphones). Maybe the author thought that smartphone video will be closer to the "chalga" mindset i.e., what we see in the "Instagram" of the influencers and celebrities, but if that was the case then I would want Valev to go a bit more to the extremes and clearly "seal" this message (e.g. Some "Instagram" filters applied, more selfie angles, etc.), because now for me it looks more like a defect, rather than effect. Also, I understand that the movie was shot with smartphones, but the slow-motion scenes (running sequence near the end and some others) were cartoonish and addendum.
6. Character development - in the very beginning we understood that the lead heroine - Barbara is on a route for grabbing quick money for a breast augmentation which will help her to chaise a chalga singer carrier. Barbara is ready to follow her dream at any cost, even by selling her body. She is suffering for the sake of her dream, but on screen (it is often implied) we barely actually see anything bad happening to Barbara. Obviously, Valev didn't want to go into the more "graphic" / "violence" route. Neither he wanted to see his heroine undergo the desired surgery. On top of that Rose (the supporting character) was always supportive and quickly forgiving Barbara's betrayals and mistakes. So, with such "milky" screenplay how we (the auditory) can be convinced that Barbara really learned her lesson and has changed? How will our children learn the lesson that the chalga mindset is bad for our society?
7. Length & endings - At the 90-minute mark we listen to a full-length song, beautifully sung by the lead heroine. The intention is obvious - to show that she can sing, but I don't think this justifies the performance of an entire song and the cliché flashbacks of sequences from previous scenes. From that point onwards there are several scenes where I was tricked that each one is the final one (the ending), but the movie insisted to continue. The movie length is around 2 hours, but I think it could easily fit in 90 minutes without losing anything from the story.
8. Ads - The inclusion of ads in the movie is more than understandable since this was the way to fund the film. My only complaint is that some of the ads were incorporated a bit uninspired. Also, the "Rachkov is Stoichkov" joke was not bad and I'm sure that 99% of the Bulgarians will get it immediately, since the ad was super popular and the reference was obvious, but Valev decided to play it safe and explained the joke via his characters. His characters are daft, but we (the auditory) are not, or are we (Valev)?
What is good in this movie:
1. Some celebrities (Dimitar Rachkov, Viktor "The Bachelor" Stoyanov, Lora Karadjova) - play (a bit exaggerated version of) themselves, so they are satire for themselves and their "chalga" (money grab) mindset. Although it is a bit cringe to watch some of the scenes with them - I think convincing them to play those roles is a great achievement by Valev!
2. The two lead actresses did a great job. Big applause to Tsvetelina Stoyanova to have the guts to play Rose, since in the movie she has an "incident" which seems to be a nod to what had happened to her in the real life.
Score: I think in general Valev went to the cliché route on many occasions, but as this is an independent movie I'm a bit more generous and thus giving "Chalga" an overall score of 4/10.
Bonus food for thought: There are so many crazy real-life examples that could make interesting story plot and reveal the chalga mindset. Let's imagine that instead of the current movie Valev has decided to make a movie inspired by the life of the singer Azis (short bio summary: his mother is in prison while pregnant, he is a poor gypsy guy, he has a great voice, but he has to pretend to be gay and provocative in order to get noticed, at the peak of his career he had a billboard ad with his ass exposed in front of the Bulgarian parliament, later on he tries to convince everyone that he is straight and he wants to have a child, now after his transformation his popularity is declining...).